By ROBERT CESSNA
Eagle Staff Writer

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Forget about the last person standing. Saturday night's Big 12 women's tennis semifinal match came down to the last player wobbling the least.

Texas' Stephanie Davison outlasted A&M's Anna Blagodarova in a gut-wrenching tiebreaker to give the Longhorns a 4-3 victory Saturday night at the Mitchell Tennis Center.

Davison grabbed a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 victory to put 20th-ranked Texas (18-5) into Sunday's 1 p.m. title match against third-ranked Baylor, which beat Colorado 4-0.

It will be hard to top the drama of what A&M and Texas produced.

The loyal fans who stayed throughout the 4-hour, 30-minute match mixed moans and groans with applause and encouragement as the players exchanged incredible efforts.

Blagodarova started cramping first, taking a timeout in the third set after Davison broke her for a 4-2 lead. The gimpy Blagodarova then broke back by fighting off several game points.

Davison's sharp, deep returns kept Blagodarova moving from side to side, but the Aggie senior got the match back on serve.

Then the inspired Blagodarova lined a shot into the net that dribbled over for a 5-5 tie. Seconds later, A&M's Stephanie Davidson clinched a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory over pesky Sarah Lancaster at No. 6 singles to leave the match at No. 3 singles to decide the outcome.

Most of the fans started focusing on the Blagodarova-Davison match after Davidson took a big lead, but Lancaster fought back, fighting off two match points after rallying from a 5-0 deficit.

"Stephanie played well all night long," A&M head coach Bobby Kleinecke said. "I'm also proud of what she showed."

Davidson's efforts accented the Blagodarova-Davison match, which just kept getting better. A&M student-athletic trainer Cassi Rowe worked on Blagodarova's cramps during side changes, which seemed to help initially, allowing Blagodarova to take a 6-5 lead.

But she had a tough time moving in the next game as Davison quickly forced the tiebreaker, where things got worse for Blagodarova.

She eventually slipped down, failing to reach a passing shot. She stood up, but had trouble keeping her balance. She motioned that she was ready to play. Davison, however, was also starting to cramp.

Davison had a little more getty-up in her step, which allowed her to close out a 7-4 victory in the tiebreaker. Davison's teammates rushed out to celebrate with No. 1 singles player Vanja Corovic picked up Davison and spinning her around.

A dejected Blagodarova hit a ball toward the fence and hobbled over to a bench.

"Anna is just one of those players who lays it out every single point, every single match," Kleinecke said. "When she hits the ball, she puts everything into it she has. So at times, it gets the best of her."

Kleinecke thought Blagodarova's play was indicative of the whole team, as A&M played much better than it had in a 5-2 loss at home to Texas on April 16.

"We made some improvement and we laid it all out tonight," he said.

A&M (16-8) won the doubles point, getting a 9-8 tiebreaker win by Davidson and Morgan Frank at No. 3. Ironically, that was the only time the two led in their 11th straight victory.

A&M won the first set in three of the singles matches. UT won five in the last meeting.

"We ask the players to come out here and leave everything out on the court," Kleinecke said. "I can't ask any more than that."

Frank had A&M's other victory, grabbing a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Caroline Larsson at No. 4 singles. She has won 12 of her last 13, with the lone loss coming to UT's Lancaster.

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